sleep, enough sleep, too much sleep

In response to your emails about sleep being an energy vampire ..... yes I agree and in an early coaching session at the next level ( see www.coachingatthenextlevel.biz for more details) I like to ask about sleep.

People who sleep well for about eight hours in every twenty four seem to feel happier, make fewer trips to their GP and live longer. The trouble with generally accepted truths lke that is we don't know which is cause and which is effect; perhaps feeling happy means we sleep better ? Or people in generally good health who don't feel the need to visit their GP often sleep better and so on.

But in general sleeping well is going to help a person restart their own life. So if a client feels stuck and unable to work out what to do first, I suggest they establish a regular pattern of sleep which seems right for them. I like to get up early and to do that I need to stop working, watching TV, talking about stimulating topics and so on by about 9.30pm. Then I have time to slow my brain down, often by reading something which requires little thought or writing in my journal before switching off the bedside light at about 11pm. I know that for some people that's more or less mid evening and if you can go to bed later and get up later that's fine. This is one time when a routine is helpful, going to bed and getting up at more or less the same time everyday seems to encourage easy sleep.

And what about naps ? As the queen of the mid day nap I can recommend a short "time out" in the middle of the day. Twenty to thirty minutes of doing nothing, nothing at all, after lunch gives me a real energy transfusion and doesn't disturb my sleep.

And then there's enough exercise and time outside to add to the equation ...... it can become a complex matter but it needn't be. Sleeping well is natural, babies do it, animals do it and by living as natural a life as possible we should be able to do it as well.